Jakarta, 29 March 2023 (GNP): Officials reported that at least 184 Rohingya migrants, mainly women, and children, arrived in Indonesia’s westernmost province Aceh on Monday whilst being forced to swim ashore after being dropped off at sea by a boat.
Police were notified on Monday morning after residents in the East Aceh town of Peureulak found the group, which authorities claimed numbered 94 men, 70 women, and 20 children.
Early morning on March 27th, a group of 183 #Rohingya refugees arrived in Peureulak, Aceh. UNHCR is closely coordinating with the local government and partners to provide basic necessities, health services, and shelter. They are now sheltered in the Refugee Site in Pidie, Aceh. pic.twitter.com/F3jNp1iWrk
— UNHCR Indonesia (@UNHCRIndo) March 28, 2023
Andy Rahmansyah, East Aceh police chief, said: “From the information we received, the boat took them and told them that they have arrived at their destination and left them at the beach”.
He added that the authorities are still gathering further data and providing medical treatment to sick or injured refugees.
“There are some refugees who look weak, they probably have not been eating for days. At least five were taken to the hospital, while others were taken to a mosque compound for shelter, food, and medical treatment”, said Nasri, head of the Peureulak subdistrict.
One of the refugees said that the boat’s captain had dropped them off at sea and instructed them to swim to land.
Ali, a Rohingya refugee, told Antara, the national news agency: “After that, the ship we were on immediately left”.
The migrants were trying to travel from Myanmar to Malaysia, he said.
Each year, large numbers of the brutally tormented Rohingya, who are primarily Muslims, take life-threatening risks on deadly sea voyages, often in crappy boats, in an attempt to obtain shelter in Indonesia or Malaysia.
The rate of this migration frequently rises throughout the months of November to April, when the ocean tides are smooth.
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The Rohingya are a marginalized ethnic and religious minority in Myanmar, and the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has stated that 2022 may have been one of the bloodiest years at sea for them in over a decade.
According to the foreign ministry, since November last year, 918 Rohingya have arrived in Indonesia’s westernmost province of Aceh after traveling south across the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.
After an army-led assault in August 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims fled from Myanmar, a country with a majority of Buddhists, to refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Thousands of Rohingya houses were allegedly burned as well as numerous rapes, murders, and deaths committed by Burmese security forces.
The Rohingya who remain in Myanmar face severe persecution, isolation, and the loss of their citizenship.
A delegation from Myanmar arrived last week at Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar area where around one million Rohingya live, to assess possible candidates for their repatriation as early as next month.
Skeptics have criticized the idea, which is intended to be a “pilot project” to repatriate 1,000 migrants, and has labeled it a “PR campaign.”
Local officials are in discussions about shelter for the refugees with the UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration.
